


We've Got Time

by stalrua



Series: Tumblr Drabbles [6]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon Compliant, Ereri Canonverse Week 2018, Fluff and Smut, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-10 02:50:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16461965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stalrua/pseuds/stalrua
Summary: “You say you know me.”  Levi finally faced him completely, leaning back against the windowsill, feet crossed at the ankles and fingers drumming lightly on the trim.  “But I don’t know you.”For Ereri Canonverse Week: Confessions





	We've Got Time

**Author's Note:**

> This idea snuck up on me last minute, which means I whipped it out about five times faster than normal just so I could post it on the right day. Please excuse any mistakes. And I’m usually all about canonverse angst, but I got hit with feels so yeah. Fluff. And smut.
> 
> Special thanks to [fluffymusketeer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffymusketeer/pseuds/fluffymusketeer) for helping me brainstorm!
> 
> Now excuse me while I go catch up on all the things I shoved aside in my mad rush to write this :)

Eren slid his hands around Levi’s back, dug his fingers into those firm muscles he knew by memory, felt the way they slid over each other.  His breath came in stuttered pants.  Short, sharp _ah ah ah_ ’s marked the rhythm of their every movement, and if he ground out the occasional _fuck yes_ , it only served to make Levi’s hips snap a little harder than before.

A brief pause had Eren opening his eyes, but Levi merely sat up and drew Eren’s legs over his shoulder.  Hands to the back of his knees, Levi urged Eren into more of a curve.  He pulled out completely, teased Eren for a moment before bottoming out once again, and the new _angle_.

Eren threw his head back against the bed.  “God, yes, that’s— there, _right_ there, fuck—”

Heat curled through him as Levi started up a new pace.  His cock hung thick and heavy and aching between them, and Eren thought he might just die if he didn’t touch himself soon.  Releasing his grip on Levi’s thighs, he reached down only to have his hand slapped away.

“Say it.”

Eren groaned, hands fisting in the sheets on either side of his head.  “Levi…”

“Come on.  I want to hear you say it.”

For all Levi griped about his loud mouth, Eren knew he liked to hear him.  He liked to wind Eren up nice and slow until he was stammering, whining, pleading for more.  The annoyance was a façade.  A game, almost.  _Ask me.  Beg me._   And Eren didn’t mind one bit because once the roles were reversed… oh, the things he’d do when it was his turn.

He didn’t mind watching Levi lose some of that renowned self-control either.  Levi’s face was flushed, jaw slack, voice rough and gravelly.  Eren drank in the sight.  It was a powerful thing, knowing he could do that to him.

There was still one problem, though.

“Please, Levi— please touch me, I need you to—”  Deft fingers immediately closed around his cock, and Eren sucked in a shallow breath, hissed it out through his teeth.  “ _Yes_.”

“That’s it.”  Levi rolled his hips.  “Good boy.”

And it wasn’t much, but it must have been enough because then Levi was driving into him relentlessly, working Eren’s cock in time with his thrusts.  Some distant part of Eren’s mind registered the hand that had come up to clasp his, but it was quickly overshadowed by the high creeping up on him, bright and hot and heady.  God, he’d never get tired of this, the way their bodies moved together, so perfect, so—

Eren came, spilling out from between Levi’s fingers onto his chest.

Levi followed soon after, curling forward with a grunt, exhales puffing over Eren’s collarbone as the last traces of the orgasm shuddered through him.

They stayed that way for a while.  Their fingers were still tangled together, and Eren rubbed a thumb absently over Levi’s.  A gentle breeze drifted through the open window to cool their sweat-slick skin.  Sex was great, but there was something undeniably special about the deep quiet that came after.  Sometimes it was nice to just… be.

Eren hummed softly when Levi pulled out.  A quick press of lips to the inside of his knee was followed by a light tap against his thigh, and Eren lifted his leg to free Levi from where he’d been caged between them.  Without anything to hold him in place, Eren let gravity do its work.

He collapsed down, arms extending above his head so they hung off one edge of the bed while his feet dangled off the other.  He stretched the lingering soreness from his muscles, arching into the pain.  The burn felt delicious.

“You’re like a damn cat.”  Levi dropped a towel onto Eren’s stomach.  “If you make a mess, you’re changing the sheets.”

Eren stifled a laugh but dutifully cleaned himself off.  “Duly noted.”

Once he was finished, Levi tossed the towel into a basket in the far corner of the room and sat on the bed beside him.  Eren ducked his head, peeking out from beneath his fringe and smiling lazily.  One side of Levi’s lips quirked, but the motion didn’t reach his eyes.  They seemed heavy, shadowed with a weight Eren couldn’t place.

Levi brushed aside Eren’s hair and leaned down for a kiss.  He briefly licked his way into Eren’s mouth, and Eren sighed in response.  There was no heat to it, but that was exactly why he liked it.  Instead of lighting his blood on fire, Eren enjoyed the languid swirl of comfort that settled warmly in his chest, somewhere between his lungs, maybe near his heart.

It was over as quickly as it had begun.  Eren rolled onto his stomach, watching while Levi pulled on a pair of loose trousers, and licked his lips.  They tasted faintly of the peppermint leaves he’d managed to procure during their last visit to Mitras.  They’d been a gift for Levi, although the first cup of infused tea was still three-quarters full on the side table.  Levi hadn’t taken more than a couple sips before deciding to thank him properly.  And thoroughly.

Scooting forward, Eren picked up a loose sheaf of papers off the floor.  He’d pushed them out of the way when he realized where things were headed and now sifted idly through them.  Supply requests, import manifests, weapon designs.  Each document was a painful reminder that the world hadn’t stopped turning just because they’d sequestered a moment for themselves.  Their enemies were still out there.  The war was far from over.

And yet…

Eren glanced at Levi who now stood with his back to him, staring absently out the window.  Sometimes he still couldn’t believe this was his life.  That somehow, in the midst of all the battles and carnage and death, he’d managed to snag a small piece of happiness for himself.

Most people would call it foolish.  They weren’t in the business of happy endings.  But what was the point of living if you had to go at it alone?  Attachments might not change the circumstances, but they did provide a refuge of sorts, and that’s what Levi had become to him.  He wasn’t just Eren’s strength.  He was his safe harbor.

“What was your mother like?”

Eren blinked, thoughts grinding to a halt.  “What?”

He was still playing catch up when Levi shook his head.  “Never mind.  It’s a sensitive subject.  I shouldn’t have brought it up.”  He leaned one shoulder against the window frame.  “Forget I asked.”

“It’s not that.  I don’t mind talking about her, you just… took me by surprise is all.”

In reality, Eren didn’t think of her enough.  Not like he used to.  There were nights he woke up from that same terrible dream, but it wasn’t his mother’s death that had his heart racing so much as the fact that he couldn’t remember what she’d been wearing. 

Had it been her favorite yellow dress?  The pale green one with the stain on the front from the time she’d staunched one of his bloody noses after a fight?  The brown skirt she always saved for the times she needed to disguise the mud off the streets because it wasn’t washing day yet?

Eren squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.  He was terrified of one day forgetting her completely.  So many of the details had already begun to fade.

But that wasn’t what this was about.  Levi’s question might have been genuine, but there was something deeper to it than that.  Eren returned the papers to the floor and propped his chin in one hand.  “Is everything okay?”

“Yes.”

Eren frowned.  “Are you sure?”  The clipped tone didn’t bother him, but the line of tension winding its way through Levi’s shoulders did.

“Nothing’s wrong, Eren.  Drop it.”

It was a dead-end if he’d ever heard one.  If Levi didn’t want to talk, there would be no forcing the issue.  No one stonewalled quite like him.  With a shrug, Eren flopped onto his back and pulled on his underwear – _let him stew on his own then_ – but no sooner had he laced his fingers beneath his head than he heard Levi snort.

“That’s it?”

Eren tilted his head back to find Levi’s inverted figure.  “What’s it?”

Levi was still at the window, but he’d at least turned enough to fix Eren with a dubious look over his shoulder.  “You’re not going to poke and prod and nag me to say more?”

“I, uh… wasn’t planning on it, no.”  This felt like some kind of test, like he was back at the academy and Shadis was trying to trip him up.  “You told me to drop it.”

One of Levi’s brows arched.  “And when have you ever followed my orders?”

Shooting upright, Eren twisted around and slung his legs over the side of the bed, the beginnings of a grin already tugging at his mouth.  “Hey now, that’s not fair!  There was that one time I—”  Wait, no, he’d gone off on his own then too.  Shit.  Eren backtracked to the early days when he was freshly graduated and star struck.  “What about when you told me to stay within ten meters of you at all times?  I’ve done well with that.”

“Tch.  A little too well, some might say.”

“Yeah, well, maybe _some_ are just jealous.  You’ve never complained.”

Levi rolled his eyes.  It was getting late, and the setting sun washed over him in an almost ethereal way, casting him in a myriad of reds and oranges.  His body looked like it was on fire.  Or covered in blood.  Eren’s grin faltered.  They’d been through so god damn much together.

“I dropped it because I know you don’t like being pressured into talking.”  Not to say he didn’t push the limit at times, but something about this conversation felt off.  Eren touched his feet to the floor.  The solid wood helped ground him.  “I figure you’ll talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you when you’re ready.”

Levi took a deep breath, held it for a minute before exhaling a dismal laugh.  “You know me.”

“What?”

Eren cringed.  He was beginning to sound like a broken record.

“You say you know me.”  Levi finally faced him completely, leaning back against the windowsill, feet crossed at the ankles and fingers drumming lightly on the trim.  “But I don’t know you.”

“Okay, I’m… going to need more to go off than that.  I mean, we’ve worked together for nearly four years now.  We’ve been sleeping together for the better part of one.  I thought we knew each other pretty well.”  Eren offered a hesitant, crooked smile.  “Considering what we just finished doing, I’d say we know each other _very_ well.”

“There’s a difference between knowing what gets you off and knowing you as a person.  If a good fuck was all it took to know someone, everyone in the military would be on much better terms.”

Words had never come easily to either of them.  For all their differences, that was one trait they both shared.  There were moments, of course, but for the most part, they’d always conveyed more through actions, which was why the tics that might have been overlooked by anyone else were glaringly obvious to Eren.

He zeroed in on Levi’s fingers, still tapping against the wood.  The defensive rounding of his shoulders.  His tight jaw, and the way one foot wagged restlessly.  And that was when it hit him.

Levi was nervous.

Confusion gave way to a sort of heart-wrenching affection.  Eren bit back a dopey grin for the sake of Levi’s pride.  “You can ask me anything.  You know that, right?  I don’t exactly have any secrets.”

“And therein lies the irony.”  Levi gestured vaguely at Eren.  “It’s not as if you’re some enigma.”

“Levi—”

“I know you’re from Shiganshina.”

The interruption had Eren’s mouth snapping shut so hard his teeth clicked together.  He wasn’t quite sure where Levi was going with this, but he wasn’t about to discourage it.

“Your mother was killed, your father more or less cursed you, and you have a deranged brother out there I need to kill.  You may clean better than anyone in the Corp, but you’re still piss-poor when it comes to the maneuver gear.  Most likely you’ll always be better at getting the job done as a titan.  You only pretend to hate Jean – don’t even bother denying it – and you need a haircut.  Terribly.”

Chuckling under his breath, Eren intentionally mussed it just to see Levi’s deadpan expression.  It was all a front, though, and they both knew it.  Levi might give him shit, but there’d been no hiding the eager way he grasped it one night when Eren was sucking him off.

“You’re as stubborn and hot-headed as the day we met.  You still act like you’re fifteen more often than not.  But you’re determined.  And for some god damn reason, you’ve convinced yourself the fate of the world is your responsibility.”  Levi’s brows drew together in a pensive frown.  “Thing is, anyone in this building could tell you the exact same.”

Understanding began to filter through, and Eren slowly pushed off the bed, chest aching with something indescribable.  Levi’s focus never strayed, although his chin did lower, almost in a challenge.  As if Eren would actually consider teasing him after saying all that.

_He’s nervous._

_He’s self-conscious._

_He wants to know me._

Across the room, Levi’s eyes hardened.  “Don’t look at me like that.”

Eren took one step forward.  “Like what?”

“Like you want to fucking coddle me.”

The grin Eren had been struggling to hold back was in full force now.  He could feel the strain of it in his cheeks, in the giddy daze that emboldened him to continue despite Levi’s look of warning.  He couldn’t help it, couldn’t stop even if he wanted to.  And if Levi decided to wipe the smile off his face by force, Eren wouldn’t even fight back.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…”

It wasn’t _just_ anything, though.  Levi was always so composed, the calm center of whatever storm they faced.  Eren wasn’t used to this side of him.  He wasn’t even aware Levi _had_ this side.

They’d never actually sat down and discussed what was happening between them.  From the moment they first tumbled into bed, they’d been taking things one day at a time, enjoying it for what it was.  And that was fine.  Eren just wanted to be with Levi in whatever capacity he could.  He’d be happy with whatever they had, whatever Levi was willing to give him.  If that meant going with the flow, never digging deeper, and not upsetting the status quo, he could do that.  Life was too short to make mountains out of molehills.

Heaving a sigh, Levi turned back to the window, arms crossed.  “What made you think I’d like the leaves?”

Eren sidled closer.  “The cakes at Historia’s coronation.  You never get seconds, but you kept going back to the one with peppermint extract.  I figured you’d like it in your tea.”  The trousers hung loose around Levi’s hips, and Eren palmed the bare skin above Levi’s hipbones before easing around to clasp his hands below his navel.  “All this because I bought you some peppermint leaves?”

Levi shook his head.  “Because you knew something about me I’d never told you.”

Those thoughts circled through Eren’s head, repeating over and over again.  _He’s nervous.  He’s self-conscious.  He wants to know me._  With a soft smile, he all but curled into Levi, nosing the bristles of his undercut.

“I like blueberry jam and clotted cream on my biscuits.”

Levi jerked.  “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Everyone thinks I like honey best, but that’s only because we hardly ever have cream.”  Eren pressed his lips to the top knob of Levi’s spine and spoke against his skin.  “When I was a kid, my favorite color was yellow, but now it’s green.  It changed when I went outside the walls.  Seeing everything for the first time, all the grass, the trees…”

He felt Levi nod, felt what remained of the tension unravel.  “I know.”  No one probably understood that better than Levi.

“I hate rain, but I love the days where it looks like it could at any minute, when it’s cloudy and dreary and the wind’s blowing.”  Eren rested his chin on Levi’s shoulder.  “My mom was the most amazing person I’ve ever known.  I…”  His voice caught, and he swallowed the lump in his throat.  “She didn’t like the scouts, but she would’ve loved you.  After she forgave you for all the times you knocked out my teeth.”

“She might have thanked me for teaching you some discipline.  Or trying to, anyway.”

Eren breathed out a wet snuffle.  His sight was blurry with the sudden onslaught of tears, and he blinked them away rapidly before they could fall.  He really didn’t feel like crying all over Levi.

A warm hand settled over Eren’s arm.  “You don’t have to do this, Eren.”

“No, I want to.”  He tilted his head to whisper in Levi’s ear.  “Because if you’re serious about getting to know me, you should know that I actually can’t stand tea.  I only drink it as an excuse to spend time with you.”

Eren shuffled back to avoid a well-aimed kick to his shin, but Levi still managed to shove his face away with a long-suffering groan.  He might have muttered something along the lines of _you idiot_ , too, but the words were lost in the scuffle as Eren valiantly held onto Levi’s waist despite his halfhearted attempts to push at Eren’s chest.

Eren was still snickering when Levi finally relented, allowing himself to be reeled into a hug.  “Well, I’m glad we got that out in the open.  I didn’t know how to stop drinking it without hurting your feelings.”

“You should’ve told me sooner.”  Levi huffed.  “Do you realize how much tea I wasted on you?  That shit’s expensive.”

Drawing impossibly closer, Eren buried his face in the crook of Levi’s neck and felt strong, sure fingers thread into his hair.  When Levi’s other arm snaked around to trace indecipherable patterns across the small of his back, Eren sighed.  “I never want to stop learning about you.”

“Then don’t.”  Levi tugged lightly on Eren's hair, forcing him back so their eyes could meet.  “We’ll take it slow.  There’s no need to rush.  We’ve got time.”

Eren didn’t know who the reassurance was meant for more: himself or Levi.  Probably Levi.  He recalled all the nervous tics, the adorably awkward, roundabout way he’d confessed to wanting more.  Yes, definitely for Levi.  Still…

Eren leaned in, a smile on his lips, and kissed Levi.

_We’ve got time._

He liked the sound of that.


End file.
